Вирджинский технологический институт запускает программу для привлечения сельских школьников в профессию учителя

Virginia Tech’s School of Education is taking a “grow your own” approach to addressing the teacher shortage. Listen to the report below or read the full story: More than 2,400 public teaching positions across Virginia were vacant during the 2025-2026 academic year. To promote “grow your own” teacher pipelines that encourage students to return to their hometowns as educators, Virginia Tech’s VTeach program is bringing 200 high school students interested in careers in education from rural school districts to the university’s campus for a day. Dr. Natalie Ferand, an Assistant Professor of Career and Technical Education at the university, and the School of Education’s Community and K-12 Partnerships Coordinator, says she hopes that building these relationships now will allow the university’s education program to place more student-teachers in rural schools in the future. “We really want to expand the relationships with our surrounding school divisions, and really go out into those areas who might be seeing a larger teacher shortage, and see if we can’t partner with those schools.” But before they get there, Ferand says VTeach’s campus visit-day is designed to help students tap into a passion for teaching, “Of course we want everyone who comes to VTeach to want be a Hokie and to end up being a Hokie, but truly, if people choose the career of being a teacher or a career in education because of their experience in VTeach, it would be a very successful event to me.” Ferand says the September 18th campus visit will feature a new tradition called “Find your place,” where student and faculty participants will wear pins identifying the paths they took to careers in education, so high school students can connect with mentors whose experiences closely mirror their own.